Gas containing carbon black particles, also called smoke, leaving a reactor is quenched, usually with water, and passed through filter bags on which the carbon black is deposited and the gas passes through the filter. The flow of smoke through the filter is then stopped and the accumulated carbon black is recovered from the filter by passing a gas stream in opposite direction to the flow of the carbon black-bearing gas through the filter to release the carbon black from the filter walls. After this step the smoke is again passed through the filter to repeat the cyclic operation. The filtering process is a critical portion of the entire carbon black-producing process. The filter houses are expensive and space-consuming and the cost of the filtering constitutes a considerable amount, sometimes the highest portion, of the overall cost to produce carbon black. It is thus highly desirable to optimize the filtration efficiency.